2011 Equality Report Card Excerpt: Early Childhood Educators

↗ Consultation and planning with early childhood educators has had a positive effect on wages, opportunities, and training. This is good news.

↗ A hundred early childhood educators have been hired by school boards to teach kindergarten in the public schools and are now on the PEI Teachers’ Federation pay grid and are earning more now than previously; when they complete their B.Ed. programs they will be earning more.

↗ The new wage structure for early learning centres will result in increased income for both directors and staff. In year one, directors’ wages will rise to $21/hour and Level 2 certified staff will earn between $15/hour and $16.88/hour.

↗ Uncertified staff will be offered the opportunity to become certified through a 90-hour program; once completed, they will get $2/hour wage increases.

→ The Advisory Council remains concerned that there is a lag in getting currently uncertified early childhood staff up to the standard training for certification after so many of the most highly trained early childhood educators left early childhood centres for the public school system. We will be watching for the impact of the Skills PEI Early Childhood Development program, designed to assist about 150 women working in the early childhood sector to obtain mandatory entry-level requirements. There is need for speed for government to assist staff
to become qualified. The Advisory Council will be looking for close monitoring of quality and enforcement of regulations that support quality in the early childhood sector.

Consultation and planning with early-childhood educators for changes in early childhood care and education: A-